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Well, good morning church open
your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 2 we finished Luke chapter 1
last week we're gonna start Luke 2 this week, and I'll just Give
the warning for all the type A personalities out there. You
might see a heading in your Bible that says the birth of Jesus
Christ, the shepherds and the angels, and you're gonna look
at your watch and say it's May 26th, not December 14th, but
I can just give you the promise that by God's grace, we will
get through it together, I promise. I tried my best to raise the
tension a little bit this week to convince Chris to play like
Joy to the World or Hark the Herald Angels Sing He held the
line, he stayed strong, so that was good. Page 857, if you're
borrowing a Pew Bible in front of you, and as always, if you
don't have a Bible of your own, please feel free to take that
one. It will be on the middle left column of the page on page
857 there this morning. Read with me, church, from Luke,
chapter two. We're gonna be verses one through
21. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that
all the world should be registered. This was the first registration
when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered,
each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage
of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was
with child. And while they were there, the time came for her
to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped
him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because
there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region
there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their
flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared
to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they
were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear
not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will
be for all the people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this
will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped
in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from
them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go
over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which
the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and
found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when
they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told
them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered
at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these
things, pondering them in her heart. And the angels returned,
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as
it had been told them. At the end of eight days, when
he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the
angel before he was conceived in the womb. Well, maybe you
had a similar experience with me, 17, 18 years old. For me, this was April
of 2003. So if you want to do the math,
you can figure out exactly how old I am. But I remember coming
home from school every day and checking the mailbox for a college
admission letter. I had applied to several schools
and I was very anxious to see who or what schools would want
me to go and study with them for the next four or what ended
up being five years of my life with them. And so, when I would
come from school every day, I'd open up the mailbox and I was
anxiously awaiting to hear news. This was back in the day when
your acceptance or denial to college came on a piece of paper
that came in that big hunky metal thing at the end of your driveway.
But the suspense was exciting. News I was waiting for was that
I would be accepted into the colleges that I wanted to go
to. Now, news is an interesting word. It implies that we don't
know something and we are awaiting to hear possibly something that
would be good and pleasing to us. We, as humans, love to hear
good news. Well, tomorrow being Memorial
Day, I think it's fitting to look back at perhaps one of the
most joyful heralds of good news in our country's history, and
actually perhaps maybe its first. This came on September 5th, 1783.
It was on that day that John Adams wrote a letter back to
the President of Congress in the colonies from Paris, France,
regarding the negotiations for the Treaty of Paris. The beginning
of that letter goes like this. To the President of Congress,
Paris, September 5th, 1783. Sir, on Wednesday, the third
day of this month, the American ministers met with the British
minister at his lodgings at the Hotel New York, and signed, sealed,
and delivered the definitive treaty of peace between the United
States of America and the King of Great Britain. Although it
is but a confirmation, a repetition of the provisional articles,
I have the honor to congratulate Congress upon it as it is a completion
of the work of peace. Now, I don't believe there's
any news as good in all the world for the most number of people
than that of news of peace. War is a terrible reality. Its existence may lend itself
to epic movies, maybe some examples of heroism or bravery, but it
does so at the expense that humanity is asked to do the most terrible
thing it can do, which is to end other human lives. News that peace has been made
is a sweet word that anybody who's been fighting for any amount
of time will gladly welcome in their hearts and in their lives.
Our passage today says that we have good news of great joy. This is a passage that is incredibly
familiar to us. And like we've already talked
about, we usually read it in December, not May. It speaks of the birth
of the Christ child, the revelries and the circumstances that surround
it. But one thing I hope we look at and we consider as we approach
this passage today outside of its normal context, normal seasonal
context, at least for us, is why we have great joy. What is the good news? Why do
we celebrate it? What is the reason for it? Now, the reason for the season,
of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, His birth, is an incredible
thing to even just think about, that God would come to us. But
I wanna examine a little bit more of what that means for us
this morning, because I think the scripture today shows and
reveals something to us that maybe we don't consider as deeply
as we normally do. I think what the scripture is
telling us this morning is that God's good news of great joy
is peace with him through his incarnate son. God's good news
of great joy is peace with him through his incarnate son. We
see three things about God's good news of peace this morning.
The first thing we observe is this good news of peace has a
vessel. This would be what we would say
is the reason for the season. The peace has a vessel. It has
a carrying object. Let's look in verses one through
five. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be registered. This was the first
registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to
be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up
from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city
of David, which is called Bethlehem. because he was of the house and
lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who
was with child. Now there's several items I think
we should consider here right out the gate. One is the level
of detail that Luke uses in describing the events of this news that's
about to go out. Now, of course, Luke, we read
in the very opening words of this gospel, is providing an
orderly account so that Theophilus can have certainty concerning
the things that he's been taught. But I think there's a little
more going on here than Luke is just providing a lot of details
for certainty, for orderly reporting. The word registered or registration
is used four times in these first five verses. Luke is very specific
about the path and the placement of this couple, Joseph and Mary. They go from Galilee, a larger
region, from Nazareth, a specific town in that region, to Judea,
once again a larger region, to the city of David, a town in
that region, and he's very specific to tell everybody that town is
called Bethlehem. Mary is with Joseph, and they
are still betrothed. They're not married. I think
that this detail is added to assure Theophilus that this marriage
has not yet been consummated. Mary is still a virgin. The specificity would imply that
Luke really, really wants Theophilus to know that Mary and Joseph,
although they never would have been there normally, had a reason
to pack everything up with Mary being nine months pregnant and
make a journey that was around 90 to 100 miles. There were no cars, there were
no planes, this took a long time. And with somebody who's nine
months pregnant, that would not be something that would normally
happen. There had to be a reason, and
the reasons are given for this journey. The Bible says that
Caesar Augustus issued a decree that the people needed to be
registered. Now, this was done in those days, the scripture
says. And as we often see in scripture,
the phrase this day, that day, in those days, in this way, in
this time, those types of words, usually indicates some sort of
fulfillment is about to take place. Consider Matthew's account
of the same story in Matthew 1.18. It says, now the birth
of Jesus Christ took place in this way. God, as he normally
does throughout scripture, is using a pagan ruler to bring
about his good purpose and his sovereignty and his providence. God doesn't just teleport Mary
and Joseph to Bethlehem. He uses human events and he uses
human means to bring about his purpose. Verses six and seven
record the actual occurrence of the birth. Like we saw last
week, a child was promised and a child is now born. We're told
that while they were there, while they were there, the time came
for her to give birth. This is further solidifying the
fact that God's sovereignty and his providence is front and center. God is making sure this happens
the way he wants to. He wasn't, Jesus was not born
before the trip. He's not born after the trip.
He's not born in the long journey to Bethlehem. He is born in Bethlehem. And the Bible says that he was
wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. This is a detail
we'll see later on is very, important is there for a reason. Now, besides
some unusual circumstances, the first seven verses don't seem
to necessarily, at least on their face, to connect the good news
of God's peace with humanity to the rest of the story. It
almost seems like this is just a story about how a child is
born. Anybody who's had a child has
a story about each child. I remember vividly every detail,
the birth of both of my sons, There were some unusual circumstances. There was some drama. There was
some crying. There was joy, laughing. Lots
of things happened. You could tell the story a bunch
of different ways, but in the end, God graciously and mercifully
gave us a healthy mom and baby. Is that what's happening here
in these first seven verses? Is that it? Is that all we're
supposed to take away? Think if we look a little closer, two
things are gonna stick out and set up the rest of the story. The first thing we see is that
Caesar Augustus is identified as the emperor. Now this detail
of Caesar Augustus is almost unnecessary. If Luke is trying
to just narrow the calendar down and tell Theophilus this is when
this happened, he mentions Quirinius as governor of Syria, that would
have been a much smaller, more specific timeframe. He could
have just said the emperor. Everybody would have known who
the emperor was in this time. Caesar Augustus is a very famous
person throughout history. Any search of a history book
will tell you that after the assassination of Julius Caesar,
Augustus, with a couple of other guys, they go and they take on
Caesar's assassins and they prevail. Augustus is crowned emperor in
27 BC, an office he would hold till his death in 1480. So why
does Luke mention Caesar Augustus? What's the purpose? Now, I obviously
can't read Luke's mind. But an interesting thing to note
is Augustus is famous for many things, but perhaps what he's
best known for is ushering in this time called the Pax Romana,
the Peace of Rome, this time of complete imperial peace in
the empire. Some ancient works, and not so
many words, even refer to Augustus as the Roman Prince of Peace. Second thing we see in these
first seven verses is the emphasis on why Joseph and Mary were in
Bethlehem. It says it's because he was of
the house and lineage of David. We know that Micah 5 says that
the Messiah was going to be born in Bethlehem. This was a fact
that the Jewish scholars in Matthew chapter two would concede and
verses chapter two, three through six of that gospel. But more
than just identifying the town where Jesus was gonna be born,
the identification with David is almost certainly in reference
to the covenant God made with David in 2 Samuel chapter seven. I think it's worth a quick turn
there just to refresh ourselves on what we're looking at. 2 Samuel
seven. Verse eight, now therefore you
shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts,
I took you from the pasture from following the sheep that you
should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with
you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies before
you and I will make for you a great name. like the name of the great
ones of earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel
and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place
and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict
them no more as formerly. From the time that I appointed
judges over my people Israel, I will give you rest from all
your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to
you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up for you offspring
after you who shall come from your body and I will establish
his kingdom. He shall build a house for my
name. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Down
to verse 16. and your house and your kingdom
shall be sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established
forever." God gave David a great promise, but God also gave David
rest. Through David, God brought peace
to the people of Israel. By his work in David's life,
there's an end to violence. This peace, like the Roman peace
that Augustus issued in, like the peace that was given to Israel,
would be short-lived. But with God's promise in 2 Samuel
7 and his identification here with this child, his covenant
is that David will have a vessel that is going to bring peace
that will last forever. Indeed, there will be a prince
of peace that is coming, and the increase of his government
and of his peace, there will be no end. Isaiah chapter nine. The recording of this child's
birth shows that God's plan is happening just as he said it
would, by coming in order to create peace with the people
who are actively warring against him, and this peace is coming
in the vessel of this child. The second thing we see about
God's good news of peace is that it's been revealed. It's been
revealed. God doesn't keep his peace a
secret. verses nine and 10, and an angel
of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel
said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great
joy that will be for all the people. God is about to reveal
something, but not just something, something incredible. If we remember
our Old Testaments well, God, more times than not, doesn't
give news in this way. Doesn't send an angel or speak
directly in a big booming voice or appear in this glorious manner.
He does so, a good bit, he does it with Abraham, he does it with
Moses, he does it with Isaiah, but you have a large section
in your Bibles, most of the Old Testament and therefore most
of your Bible as a whole called the prophets. God gives news
often or gives declarations of judgment or salvation through
men who are speaking by his spirit to the people. He's revealing
himself through men. here in Luke, this is now the
third time in a little over two chapters in our Bibles that we
see God has visited his people to give news about this child. Even when he appears for John,
he's saying John is preparing the way for another who is to
come. The same command each time is
given to all three. Do not be afraid. This would
imply that God's angels are not the cute, cuddly, fat baby things
that we see in paintings. They're probably more like heavenly
warriors that could end you with the swipe of their sword. If
you notice, though, one detail, this account is slightly different
than the previous two. This event brings with it the
shining of the glory of the Lord. Like the disciples we read about
last week in Mark chapter four, the same reaction is present.
They feared a great fear. They were terribly frightened. Lots of different translations
translate it slightly differently, but the fact is these people
are terrified. whatever revelation is about
to happen, it seems that it's more glorious, it's more impactful
than the rest. Word told, this news comes with
the glory of the Lord. We read what the news is in verses
10 through 12. The angel prepares the news by
saying, this is good news of great joy that will be for all
the people. Now, up to this point, we've
seen that a lot of the news that's been revealed and a lot of the
reaction in Mary's song and Zechariah's song has been for God's people,
Israel, and it's kind of been kept there. If we go back and
read 154 or 168 through 77, you can see for yourself, this is
kind of where the audience is at. But the angel's announcement
here seems to expand the demographic just a bit. If the angel wanted
to speak specifically to the people of Israel again, he could
have used the same language that Mary and Zechariah do. This is
a new context that we're actually separated now by time and geography. So now we're looking at a context
where the angel uses the word all, all the people. So all seems
to imply that this news is for a greater number of people than
just the nation of Israel, but it's also constrained by the
clause the people. The definite article is there,
as in this is a certain number, certain type, certain group of
people. So it's larger than just the
nation of Israel, but it's also not every single human being
who is living on the earth. There's a very specific type
of people for this news. The actual news is announced
in verse 11. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Once
again, we see this language of this day. That would imply that
we have some kind of fulfillment in this news. And what we find
is this verse is chock full of fulfillment. In fact, we see
the only time in the New Testament where the titles Savior, Christ,
and Lord are all together, all three titles in one specific
verse, one specific mention of the Savior. Indeed, the angel
here tells us we have fulfilled the king that is promised to
David in 2 Samuel 7. He's here. The savior that was
promised to crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 3, he
is here. The promised Messiah shepherd
whose days are from of old, in Micah 5, he is here. The Lord of whom David said,
the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make
your enemies your footstool. He is here. The time of suspense
is over. The angel announces the beginning
of God's plan to rescue his people from their sin. His purpose here
is to tell the shepherds that what God has revealed in his
holy scriptures from all time has now been revealed to them
in space and time and in history. What follows next is another
one and only in the New Testament, and the statement, and this will
be a sign for you, that specific word. Now, there's plenty of
signs in the New Testament. Jesus performs lots of signs.
He even calls them signs. So I'm not saying that this is
the only sign given in the New Testament, but it is the only
time in the New Testament when we see that phrase, this will
be a sign for you, This phrase is also used a handful of times
in the Old Testament. But here in the New Testament,
the angel uses language that's reminiscent of Isaiah 7. That
verse says, or 7, 11, and 14 says, and this will be a sign
for you. The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will
call his name Emmanuel. We have that same language. when
God uses this in his scripture, these signs are offered to try
to convince the hearer or the receiver of the news that something
is about to happen or it has already happened, which is the
case here. The sign is strange enough that
it wouldn't be something you would come across in everyday
life, as in virgins don't normally conceive and give birth to children. That is not the normal occurrence
of everyday events. Here, the sign is you will find
a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Now, Bethlehem
was a big enough city. It's not a huge city, but it's
a big enough city where you may have more than one newborn baby
in the town. But a baby that's lying in an
animal feeding trough. I'm not an expert on animal feeding
troughs in the ancient Near East of the first century, But I'm
guessing they're not the most sanitary or pleasant places to
be. In fact, I would say that our
21st century feeding troughs are not that either. When our
sons were born, I remember Hannah, whenever I had to, whenever I
wanted to hold our children, she made me wash my hands. It
didn't matter if I set them, like, I set our children down in the
crib, and, like, when I made a sandwich, and, like, two minutes
later, I came back, I had to go wash my hands again. In fact, I have
a picture, palm of my hand, the flesh is literally, like, peeling
off because I've washed it so many times, it's so dry. It's
really disgusting. But that is how much Hannah wanted
to keep our babies sanitary. idea that a baby would be in
a feeding trough. Now that is strange. Not only
is it strange, this is a child you've just been told is king,
savior, anointed one, and he comes with the authority of God
himself. Now that would be persuasive
enough to convince even the most hardened skeptic, if they weren't
convinced already by the fact that there's this big glory of
the Lord shining around an angel who is speaking with them. God is granting a significant
grace to his audience, that what he is promising has actually
happened, it's actually taken place. As with any revelation
from God, we should be exceedingly thankful, as we'll see the shepherds
are, because we do not deserve for God to reveal himself in
any way to us, yet he does so mercifully and graciously. What
happens in verses 13 and 14 is the reaction to this in heaven.
There's more than just the angel now. And what we can only think
is like a choir of angels that are singing. They say, glory
to God in the highest and on earth, peace forever. among those
with whom he is pleased. Now, the description of the choir
and their message carries significant importance to understanding God's
good news of peace that's being revealed in their message. The
Bible says that there's a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God. Now, the word to describe host
is normally translated and considered in a military context. That's what we would normally
see it in works of this time. We'll see it in other places
in scripture. So maybe this is not necessarily a church choir. It's more like an army that is
singing. The book of Revelation is really
the only other New Testament context where we see the multitude
in heaven. More specifically, chapter 19,
verse one says this, after I heard what seemed to be a loud voice
of a great multitude in heaven crying out, hallelujah, salvation
and glory and power belong to our God. And then again, if we
skip down to verse six in Revelation 19, Then I heard what seemed
to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters,
and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
hallelujah, for the Lord, our God, the Almighty, reigns. Both instances are praising God
and giving Him glory. But more interestingly enough,
both praises of God by this multitude of the hosts in heaven are coming
in the midst of a prophecy whereby God will destroy His enemies
and bring everlasting peace through the second coming of His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. the multitude in Luke 2 at his
first coming, shows that we should expect the same praise for God
in what they sing, glory to God in the highest. That is, God
deserves the glory as high as we can possibly describe it,
as high as we can possibly give it, all the way up to the highest
in heaven. And on earth, peace. That is, the glory that reaches
all the way up to the highest in heaven. comes and brings peace
to even the lowliest parts of his creation. But then we get
a limitation if you catch it. Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Now God's
glory has no bounds. That's why it's described as
reaching up all the way up to the highest that is in heaven.
But God's peace And this description has a limit. Now, don't hear
me say that God's ability to provide peace is limited, it's
not. God's ability to atone for sin
is not limited in the fact that he is not capable of doing it.
What I think our passage shows is this peace is not guaranteed
or given to every single person that walks and breathes on the
face of this earth. This passage is not saying God
is not limited in what he can do, it's saying his peace is
limited in how it is applied. God's peace, this says, is reserved
only for those with whom he is pleased. We read earlier this
good news of great joy was limited to a certain group of people.
Remember we talked about it's bigger than all of Israel, but
it's also not all of humanity. The only people that receive
peace, church, are those upon whom the Lord's favor rests. If we think about it, it can't
be any other way. If it happens any other way than
that, then we have somehow contributed to the terms of peace. We know
God's word says, and we saw last week, we are natural enemies
of God. That's how we come into this
world. And apart from his gracious work in our hearts, God's peace
does not fall on us. Peace only comes to those whom
the mediator intercedes and makes the peace treaty with God. It
comes only through the one by whom we receive knowledge of
salvation and forgiveness of our sins. Jesus would go on in
John chapter 10, he would say this, you do not believe because
you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them, they follow me. I give them eternal life, they
will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and
no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and
the Father are one. This word for snatch means to
try to take something by force. We would normally see this in
the works of the day as like an army that's trying to hold
a city, and there's an invading army trying to snatch it away
from them. There's only one group. of people
who receive this protection from God. It's those with whom he
has provided peace with himself. Jesus, in John 6, a few chapters
before the one we just read, says, do not grumble among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It would appear
that God's peace only comes through the birth of this child that
is born in Bethlehem, and the work and the terms of peace are
fully on God himself. God reveals the saving work in
the vessel of this child who is mysteriously both man and
God as we confess this morning, and he does so to end a war and
bring peace with a people who were his enemies naturally as
they come into this world. This brings us to our final point
this morning. God's good news of peace in his son has a reaction
to those who hear and see it. There's a reaction. This news
fills the shepherds with so much joy that they go as quickly as
possible to Bethlehem to see the thing that has happened.
Now notice the shepherds don't go to see if this thing has happened. There's no if there. They are
fully convinced in their faith and what God has revealed to
them is so sure, they go just to see it and to rejoice in it. And they say, what the Lord has
made known to us, as if these things have already taken place,
we are going to see them for ourselves. They arrive, they find the child
lying in a manger, just like verse seven said Mary and Joseph
placed him, just as how they said the angel said this would
be a sign for you in verse 12, just as they were told they would
find it. And the Bible beautifully says, when they saw it, it says
they faithfully preached the good news that had been told
to them. These lowly shepherds, whose testimony would normally
not be lent a whole lot of credibility, say in like a court, They react
joyfully, and they bring the greatest news of all time that
God has ever revealed to a small number of people in a tiny town
in ancient Judea. Church, do you find joy in the
news that there is a king, that there is a savior, that there
is a promised one, that there is God himself who came to us
in order to make peace with the living God at whom we were at
war. The reaction of the news of the
shepherd says that all wondered. Just in the way, like we saw
in a chapter earlier, where when Zechariah writes on the tablet,
his name is John, there was a reaction of wonderment. It says, they
wondered. And then we get a conjunction,
it says, but. But this indicates that whatever's
about to follow is different. We're about to get Mary's reaction
and it's going to be different and what we'll see superior to
that of just sheer wonderment. says she lays up these things,
says she ponders them in her heart. Church, does the good
news of the gospel still fill your mind like this? Does the
fact that you were God's enemy, but now he has made peace with
you through his son penetrate all the way down to your heart?
Or is it simply a matter of that's neat, that's cool, and it's just
wonder? Shepherds go back to their work.
In the same manner, the angels appear to them. They go back
glorifying and praising God. If we remember the way the Bible
describes the reaction in heaven, that is what the angels were
doing. They were praising God, glory
to God in the highest. Here, we see that transmission
of heavenly praise has now made it to earth in these shepherds,
quite literally on earth as it is in heaven. reaction to this
good news that is only revealed by God's special revelation,
verse 20 says, for the third time in five verses, if you catch
it, that God had made known to us, that God had revealed to
us. This news always will spark an intellectual reaction. In fact, Paul sees this at the
Areopagus in the book of Acts. They are very intellectually
interested in the Christian faith, but church, the good news of
the gospel will only penetrate and sear the conscience and hearts
of some. My prayer is that this good news
of great joy will not become so dull in our lives that we
forget the magnitude of what it means for God to tell us the
good news of peace in his son by his word. Our executive pastor, Brother
Jason Reed, within the last year, finished a marathon. It's a pretty
big deal. It's really hard. I know a lot
of training went into that, and I'm sure it was not fun in the
midst of it. Now, I get reminded almost daily
that Jason is a smart individual, much smarter than me in our interactions.
But I say he's smart So he almost certainly knows the reason and
the story behind why a marathon is 26.2 miles. And being as smart
as he is, he decided to do one anyways. The legend is that the Greek
army was fighting back the first Persian invasion in 490 BC at
a port Greek city called Marathon. And once the battle was near
a victorious end, it says there was a messenger named Pheidippides
and he ran all the way from Marathon to Athens to burst into the General
Assembly and declare this good news and immediately collapsed
and died. The distance from Marathon to
Athens is approximately 26.2 miles long, and the first person
who ever tried to do it died of exhaustion. Pheidippides' good news was so
important, so glorious, that he ran to the point of his death
to deliver it. His good news of great joy to
the Athenian people, to the Greek assembly, was we have won. Verse 21 ends our passage this
morning with Mary and Joseph's faithfulness to the Mosaic law.
They circumcised Jesus on the eighth day. It also ends with
their faithfulness to God's command that this child shall be called
Jesus, which is the name given him by the angel. Now, it would
be easy to pass over this statement and just chalk it up to another
feather in the cap of Luke providing a detailed and orderly account. But I think if we leave it there
today, we're gonna miss so much of what is happening in this
last verse that we seemingly can just pass over. In closing
today, I think we should go back to Luke chapter one, verses 31
through 35. And behold, you will conceive
in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be
called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to
him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be
no end. And Mary said to the angel, how
will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the
Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will
overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called
Holy, the Son of God. This is no ordinary child. Church, this is no ordinary birth
story. We confess the nature and the
person and the deity and the manhood of Jesus Christ this
morning, but let us never forget what is happening with his coming. The angel tells us with the fact
that he is called Jesus, that he is great. He is son of the
most high. He inherits the throne of his
father, David. He reigns over Jacob forever.
He is holy. He is the Son of God. The angel sums all of this good
news of great joy up and that his kingdom will have no end. Kingdoms, church, come only through
victory. Victory that brings peace. The birth of this child echoes
the words of Pheidippides, we have won. It echoes the words
of John Adams that this is a completion of the work of peace. You see,
Augustus may have ushered in peace by military might and coercion,
but God's news of great joy is peace with him comes through
his incarnate son. This son is a king, he is a savior,
he is Christ and he is Lord. He's sent here with the purpose
of going to the cross and making peace by the blood of that cross. Our brother opened the service
up today with Romans chapter five, verse one. Therefore, since
we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace from what, church? Peace
from what? Verse six, for while we were
still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps
for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows
his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Since therefore we have now been
justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him
from the wrath of God. For if while we were his enemies,
We were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more,
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. There is only peace through Christ's
church. Let us never forget as we leave
here today, that God has provided peace with himself by entering
history himself to end our war with himself. Let us never forget
God's good news of great joy is that he has made peace with
humanity through his incarnate son. Let us pray. Father, had we been left to ourselves,
we would war against you with our last breath. We would be
like the nations in Psalm 2 that rage and plot in vain. God, we
don't deserve your peace. We're not owed your peace. Father,
in your mercy and in your grace, you come to us who have no terms
to offer. We have no merits of our own
to give you to make the peace treaty. Father, you wanted this
peace so much that you came into history yourself in the form
of a child by your incarnate Son. to go to the cross and make
peace by his blood on that cross. Father, may this never grow dull
in our hearts, may it never weaken in our minds that we were your
enemies, but even in the midst of that, you saved us by faith
and repentance in your son. These are gifts from you and
we thank you for it. We give you the glory and we
ask that you would use us in this as you fill us with your
spirit to go forth and do for your kingdom what you have called
us to do. God, we pray these things in the name of your son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Good News of Great Joy
Series Luke: Good News
The angel's good news of great joy in the birth of our Lord is perhaps one of the most well-known passages in all of Scripture. It graces our refrigerators in the form of greeting cards, decorates social media walls (and sometimes. . .actual walls), and has even made it into animated cartoon shows as early as 1965! But have we ever considered what the good news is that the angel of Luke 2 is proclaiming? Have we ever thought about why it should drive us to great joy? In Sunday's sermon from Luke 2:1-21 we will consider these things and look to God's word and wisdom for the answers.
| Sermon ID | 526241229534487 |
| Duration | 45:36 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Luke 2:1-21 |
| Language | English |
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